Help Burundian poor population in hard situation

Save Life Make Difference 

Bujumbura Bururndi

savelifemakedifference@gmail.com

71452395

 

Sub :Project repport

 

 

Burundi is a young country: two out of three inhabitants are under 35. But it is also the poorest country in the world, according to the World Bank’s 2022 estimate, with 87% of its population living on less than $1.9 (or 5,400 Burundian francs) per day. Meetings with young people from the province of Ruyigi, in eastern Burundi, who struggle every day to try to escape poverty.

It is a landscape dominated by ochre and green. The almost red earth contrasts with the deep green of the lush vegetation. As far as the eye can see, thousands of hills. Burundi stretches over the heights of the Great Lakes. Here and there, houses made of brick and earth. A bumpy track serves as a road. In the back of a bicycle taxi, Justin* clings to the driver while holding his shopping bag filled with flour, biscuits, sugar and soap. He has just bought these goods in Muriza, a town located on the national road a few kilometres from Ruyigi, capital of the province of the same name. 130 km further east is the border with Tanzania.

It is the "Lord's Day", so Justin, who comes to mass every Sunday morning in Muriza, took the opportunity to stock up. Usually, this 23-year-old rides his own bike along the track from Muriza to Kanyinya, a small village of a dozen homes where he lives. But for several weeks his bike has been broken, and Justin does not have the 40,000 Burundian francs (€13) needed to repair it.

It takes a lot of effort to eat.
However, he has to go to Muriza two to three times a week to supply the small business he opened two years ago in his village. To buy his shop, his house and his farmland, Justin went to work for two months in the fields in Tanzania, as many young men in the area do. He places all his hopes in his business, but for the moment he must reinvest his daily income, 30,000 Burundian francs (€9), in the purchase of new products to sell or in chemical fertilizers needed for his crops.

A bag of fertilizer alone costs 32,000 francs. Like all Burundians, the young man grows beans, corn or cassava around his house to feed himself. “Life is hard,” Justin explains. “To eat, you have to make a lot of effort, and I don’t earn enough from my business to save money.”

 

However, the young man in the fluorescent orange T-shirt is not giving up. He recently bought a rabbit and a few guinea pigs, for 1,500 francs (€0.50) each, which he raises in one of the small rooms in his house. He sells each rodent for 2,500 francs (€0.80) three months later. Enough to support the daily food supply a little. While Justin returns home, *, his wife, who wears her hair very short in the Burundian style, is busy in another room with a dirt floor, around a pot placed on a wood fire.

 



The young woman, who is carrying an eight-month-old baby on her back, is boiling the water she has just drawn from the river below. Hervé*, the eldest of the children, aged six, watches her with his big dark eyes. On the menu tonight: red beans and sweet potatoes grown around the house. We will have to eat dinner before nightfall, due to the lack of electricity. An oil lamp is a stopgap. Justin has also taken care to buy a solar battery to recharge his phone, which is useful for his business.

Most young men are forced to go into exile in Tanzania every season to support the family home.
4 p.m. Justin returns to his shop, a sort of small hut in the heart of the village, where a window open to the outside serves as a counter. It is the Sunday evening market: women set up in the street on the ground to sell dried tobacco or small fish. An old man comes to the counter of the shop, orders a beer and starts a discussion: "Life was easier before. It was easier to feed ourselves, because the land was more fertile. Now we need fertilizers. Most young men are forced to go into exile in Tanzania every season to support the family home, and they remain a burden on their parents well beyond their majority, because they do not have the means to start their own home. The future of Burundian youth is uncertain,” says the old man with a tired face with a sigh.

“The future is not rosy because the youth are poor,” adds Justin, handing him his beer. He hopes that his son will go to school, that is to say, that he does not stop like him at 13. The high cost of school fees was then impossible for his parents to bear. “I dream that Lionel will have a better life. Maybe by becoming a priest,” murmurs Justin, because the priesthood is considered in Burundi as a possible path to social advancement.

OVERPOPULATION
Like Him, about 80% of Burundians live from agriculture. But land is becoming increasingly scarce because the country is small (just over 27,800 square kilometres, roughly the size of Belgium) and the population is growing year by year. It is difficult to know the exact number of inhabitants, in the absence of a recent census by the Burundian authorities. The World Bank, for its part, estimates the population at 13 million inhabitants in 2023, with a density of 442 inhabitants per square kilometre. This overpopulation is one of the main causes of poverty, explains the world bank, the administrator of Butaganzwa, the capital of the commune where Muriza is located: “Population growth is a handicap to development, because there are so many young people today. The State trains and supervises young people, particularly through trade centres and universities, but there is not enough work for everyone.” »

A handful of politicians have seized the wealth, and Burundi is now in the top 10 most corrupt countries in the world.

An opinion that is qualified by , Burundian economist**: “It is true that the land is overexploited due to population growth, but the government has not invested in agricultural growth to make it more profitable. There is no job creation to promote economic growth. Previously, Burundi produced tea or coffee, he recalls. Today, there are almost no more exports and commodity prices are increasing, taking the population hostage. The economic situation is catastrophic and this impasse is due to the country’s poor governance: a handful of politicians have seized the wealth, and Burundi is now in the top 10 most corrupt countries in the world. »

The economist also points the finger at the attitude of the international community, stressing that development partners such as the European Union, the World Bank and the African Development Bank suspended their aid after the 2015 crisis because of the shrinking civic space. As a result, Burundians, and especially young people, are trapped in poverty. More than 6 million people, or half the population, are in a situation of food insecurity. It is difficult not to see this as a humanitarian crisis that has been forgotten by everyone.

 

for Save Life Make difference  we still need money to continue our project 

Since the beginning of this projwe done some things but we have only $2,646 raised of $850,000 goal

we thank all people who support save Life Make Difference even we stil have problem about lack of money we still have hope to acheive our target . 

 

 

Save life make difference 

Buumbura Burundi 

09/03/2025